


nowhere left to run.

by sturidge



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturidge/pseuds/sturidge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been over twenty years since the fall of Voldemort and the end of the Second Wizard War - twenty years of picking up the pieces and counting losses. Most Death Eaters are in Azkaban, the Ministry of Magic has been purged off of corruption and Hogwarts has nothing but grown since its last battle. Looking from the outside, you could even say that all has been well.</p>
<p>But with a new evil moving in the darkness of the castle, some will find out that is not quite true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nowhere left to run.

* * *

_ Prologue. _

HOGWARTS EXPRESS

 

The train left out a fat puff of white smoke, the air whistle echoing through the rear cars. All around him, students were moving, pushing their trunks around, screaming at each other and trying to find empty compartments. Owls were chirping, toads were croaking and here and there, a cat would run between people’s legs, tripping unaware students.  It was the closest thing to hell one could find.

And Albus wasn’t paying attention to any of that.

He was clinging to the nearest window, his eyes glued to the platform. Al could still discern the shape of his parents and his little sister, waving at him from the distance; they were tiny and blurring, fading a bit more at each passing second – like a dream, slipping through his fingers the more he tried to hold tightly to it.

The train made a sharp turn on a mountain and just like that, they were gone.

“I guess it’s just the two of us now”, Rose said, behind him. His cousin had stuck around with him, guarding their stuff. She didn’t want to leave Albus alone, even if it meant getting stuck in a shitty compartment later on.

Albus turned to her, sighing deeply. “I guess so”, he answered, giving her the kind of look that could only mean one thing: _what now?_

It was the first time either of them had been off the nest by themselves. Surely one could argue that they WEREN’T by themselves, seeing as it was a train full of students, but that was beside the point. The thing was, neither Albus Potter nor Rose Weasley had ever been that far away from their parents like that: before, whenever they turned, there was always a brother, a sister, a cousin, an uncle or a grandparent to watch over them.

Hogwarts was, by all means, their first true step out of the crib.

That was scaring the crap out of them.

“Maybe we should… check in with James?” she suggested. James was one year older than both of them and he had already faced what they were going through; in Rose’s mind, that meant he was good enough to help them, even if Jimmy was a prat.

“Do we _have to_?” Albus shrieked. He could almost picture James and his friends mocking him all the way to Hogwarts. It was the exact thing he had been scared about.

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Rose asked, nose-twitched.

“You could sit with me”, someone behind them suggested.

Rose spun around so fast, Albus thought she was about to break her neck.

There was a boy standing on the corridor nearby. He was tall and slim, with a very pointy face and sharp cheekbones; his eyes were grey, like the sky in a stormy night, matching his silky, white-blond hair and milky skin. There was a sense of smugness in the way he stood there, leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets and hair pushed back. He had one of those kinds of faces you either want to kiss or hit with a frying pan.

Albus recognized him almost immediately – the kid from platform earlier that day.

Scorpius Malfoy.

Rose seemed to have noticed that as well, because she folded her arms tightly against her chest the moment she saw him. “Excuse me?”

“I said we could share”, Scorpius repeated. When his eyes met Albus’, he smiled. Al felt something move uncomfortably inside his stomach. Like a thousand butterflies moving, all at once. “My friend and I, we found a good compartment nearby.”

For a moment it looked like Rose was pondering her options. She narrowed her eyes and bit her lower lip, checking Malfoy from head to toe; the look on her face, Albus noted mentally, was the same on Autie Hermione had when she tried to complete the crossword maze of the Sunday Prophet.

“Uh… thanks, but no, thanks”, she said, at last. “I’m sure we can find somewhere else. Maybe with Vicky or Lucy or–”

“Or we could just go with him”, Albus interrupted shyly. Rose gave him a shocked look, while Scorpius’ smile grew wider.

“See? He’s got some sense”, he teased. “Albus, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Come along, Al. We got candy.” Scorpius went ahead and pulled Albus’ trunk, dragging him down the corridor. “You too, ginger girl!”

Albus was about to follow him went Rose grabbed his arm, stopping him. “I thought we’re going to stick together.”

“We’re going to”, Al shrugged, brushing her hand off. “I just don’t want to be stuck brushing Victoire’s hair or getting teased by Freddie and Dominic all day.”

“But Al…”

“Why don’t you just come along?” he asked. With one last look towards a very disappointed Rose, he followed Scorpius to his compartment.

 

* * *

 

“This is where the magic happens”, Scorpius said, opening the door for him. “Literally.”

It was a small compartment in the back of the car, squeezed between a group of extremely loud Ravenclaw players and two very sexually active fourth graders. It was occupied mostly by another newbie, a dark-skinned boy who had his legs stirred all over his seat, and an open aquarium, where a tiny green-and-silver snake had curled itself around what looked like the remains of a rat. The boy had a book covering his face and he didn’t bother lifting it when they came in.

“Occupied”, he shouted, with a voice too rusty for someone his age.

“It’s me, you muggle”, Scorpius rolled eyes, hitting his friend on the leg. “And I brought someone along.”

He took the space on the right side of the aquarium, tapping against the glass softly – trying to attractive the attention of the pet, but it was still focused on the rat bones. Albus, standing there like a dweeb, had never felt so out of place before.

Scorpius had noticed that. “Aren’t you gonna _sit_?” he asked, pointing to the empty space next to the door. “Don’t worry about Arya, he’s not gonna bite you.”

“Which one is Arya?” Al asked, sitting as far away from the aquarium as he could. He wasn’t a fan of snakes; something he had inherited from his father, apparently.

It wasn’t really a joke, but Scorpius laughed anyway. “This is my friend Berty Zabini. Berty, this is Al Potter.”

“ _Bertrand_ ”, Berty corrected, peeking through his book. He had short black hair, dark eyes and the face of someone in a constant state of constipation. “Welcome aboard.”

Later on in life, Albus would come to appreciate the irony of the situation – sitting there, with two of his father’s school nemesis. In that moment, however, he was more focused on avoiding making eye-contact with the Arya.

“It’s not… poisonous, is it?” he asked, “the snake, I mean.”

“The shop owner said it wasn’t”, Scorpius shrugged, still tapping on the glass. “But my dad says we shouldn’t trust those guys on Knockturn Alley, so who knows.”

“Why is your dad buying stuff on the Knockturn Alley?” Albus asked, subtly pushing himself further away. Scorpius chuckled.

“‘Cause they have the best prices, dummy. You can buy anything for half the price there, if you know who to ask.”

“Yeah, but there is always the chance of you buying monkshood and getting hydrangea instead”, Berty sneered.

Scorpius seemed to agree with that. “Relax. I keep him well-fed so I won’t wake up with him feeding on my toes.”

“It _did_ happen once.”

“Shut up Berty.”

“Didn’t you bring anything with you, Albus?” Bertrand asked, sitting up. He threw his copy of _The Origin of Witchcraft: Sorcery on the Beginning of Times_ , stretching out his arms.

“My dad wanted to buy me a ferret, but I didn’t want the responsibility.” That wasn’t a lie, but not the entire true, either.

He had fallen in love with a cute white ferret with sparkly blue eyes and little black dots all over its head, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask his dad for it – his father and his mother had gotten in the middle of an argument just before he could get to the pet store, the last stop on his school list. The mood was too awkward between them, so they called it a day shortly.

Besides, it clearly stated he could only bring a toad, an owl or a cat. The last thing he wanted was getting his ferret confiscated before he could get to Hogwarts – or him not getting sorted for breaking the rules.

It had been one of his recurring nightmares.

“Blimey, that sucks”, Scorpius said, frowning. “But hey, you can always help me feed Arya, if that’s the case. I mean, if we get to be in the same House, that is.”

“Which House do you think you’re going to be in, Albus?” Bertrand asked. “My mother said she’ll disown me if I don’t get in Slytherin.”

“He’s not gonna do that! Your mum just likes to be dramatic”, Scorpius countered. He fished a bone out of the aquarium, throwing it at his friend’s face. “My dad said he’s cool with whatever, as long as it’s not Hufflepuff… or Gryffindor.”

“That leaves a lot of options, now, doesn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t mind going to Ravenclaw”, Albus said, more to himself than anyone else. He had given a lot of thought about it ever since his Hogwarts letter arrived.

His whole family, from both sides, had belonged to Gryffindor since God knew when. They had the red and gold _in their veins_ by then – heck, some said literally! There were rumours here and there that the Weasley came straight from Sir Godric himself. In the last hundred years, there had been only one instance of a Weasley that wasn’t a part of Gryffindor; and even so, Lucy was seen by the rest of the family as a stray cat for picking Slytherin during the Sorting Ceremony.

Sometimes Albus wondered what everyone would think if he made a similar decision. His dad said he’d be okay with it and all that little speech, but the others…

Living with James would be a nightmare.

“Ravenclaw is cool” said Scorpius, thoughtfully. “But, y’know, Slytherin would be much better. I mean, at least you already have friends there.”

“I do?”

“Of course! We are your friends! Right, Berty?”

“If you say so”, Bertrand shrugged.

“This gonna be a great year, trust me. Stick around and you’ll see.”

Watching Scorpius play with his snake, Albus felt something move inside his stomach again. Deep down, he knew it would be one hell of a year.

He just wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not.


End file.
